EuroGeezers for Real

Just another afternoon in a local coffeeshop......

North across the IJ

Took the ferry across the IJ (pronounced 'Aye' I think) which is the main shipping route now to the North Sea. Its name is an obsolete Dutch word meaning "water" (surprise!). This is the first time we have ventured north of central Amsterdam. We went specifically to see the De Ceuval site. "Developed by a bottom-up community of Amsterdam-based entrepreneurs, De Ceuvel hosts a restaurant, a bed-and-breakfast, and 16 offices built from old houseboats that were recycled into creative offices and placed on land."

De Ceuval is sort of an experiment for a 'closed loop' urban development, meaning that it is nearly completely sustainable and off the grid of electricity, water, and sewer. In other words, "funky".

 

I'll drink to that!

At the Cafe Westerdok Sunday evening, sampled some Gouden Carolus whiskey infused beer......11.7 %, my goodness

Naarden

Took the train over to Naarden on Sunday. You can take the train over to a lot of places in the Netherlands.

Naarden is a surviving medieval town with the characteristic and striking "star" shape (often called a star fort) that is a product of defensive fortifications of that time.

The feature that is the defining element of the star fort is the bastion (also named bulwark, derived from the Dutch name "bolwerk") which is an angular structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of the main fortification. 

A fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks with fire from the flanks being able to protect the curtain wall and also the adjacent bastions. It is one element in the style of fortification dominant from the mid 16th to mid 19th centuries. The fortifications at Naarden date to 1673 when they were updated to 'modern' standards. Most of the fortifications that exist there today date from this period.